For Clarence Brooks, New Bedford roots run deep

He's known as "CB" to the Baltimore Ravens and "Brooksy" to his old friends back home, but everyone who knows Clarence Brooks simply call him a wonderful person and an excellent football coach.

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By TIM WEISBERG

southcoasttoday.com

By TIM WEISBERG

Posted Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By TIM WEISBERG

Posted Jan. 20, 2012 at 12:01 AM

CLARENCE BROOKS: OVER THE YEARS

COACHING RESUME 2005-present: Defensive line coach with the Baltimore Ravens.2000-04: Defensive line coach with the Miami Dolphins.1999: Defensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns....

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CLARENCE BROOKS: OVER THE YEARS

COACHING RESUME

2005-present: Defensive line coach with the Baltimore Ravens.

2000-04: Defensive line coach with the Miami Dolphins.

1999: Defensive line coach with the Cleveland Browns.

1993-98: Defensive line coach with the Chicago Bears.

1990-92: Defensive line coach with University of Arizona; he was instrumental in its "Desert Swarm" defense, which led the nation in scoring defense (1992).

1981-89: Tutored OLBs for the first six years of his tenure with Syracuse…Named defensive line coach for final three…He worked in the Dallas Cowboys' training camp as part of a minority coaching fellowship program in 1989.

1976-80: With University of Massachusetts (Amherest); Brooks' first full-time coaching position came in 1976, overseeing the defensive ends.

PLAYING DAYS

COLLEGE: Brooks was a guard at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) from 1970-72 and team captain in his final season. He earned All-Conference and All-East honors on the offensive line.

HIGH SCHOOL: Brooks lettered in both football and track and field at New Bedford High School.

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He's known as "CB" to the Baltimore Ravens and "Brooksy" to his old friends back home, but everyone who knows Clarence Brooks simply call him a wonderful person and an excellent football coach.

The Ravens' defensive line coach for the past seven seasons, Brooks has never strayed far from his New Bedford roots, and New Bedford roots for him every Sunday — even this Sunday, when the Ravens will take on the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.

For Brooks' friends and family back in the Whaling City, Sunday's game is a "win-win:" even if their beloved Patriots lose, it means that Brooks will get his chance to coach in a Super Bowl.

Clarence's younger brother Kelvin, who now lives in Jamaica Plain and works for Boston University and WBUR radio, said he's a full-fledged Ravens fan now.

"Blood is thicker than laundry," he said. "Clarence isn't just my brother; he's also a great guy. If we weren't brothers, we'd be really good friends."

Ask anyone who knows him, and they'll tell you that Brooks is an even better person than he is a football coach, and that's saying a lot.

"Clarence has never forgotten his friends or where he came from," said New Bedford's Fred Gomes. "It's part of the essence of who he is."

Gomes grew up with Brooks, since their days attending Cook Grammar School (now Holy Family) and playing midget football together on the New Bedford Barristers. They went on to play at Keith Junior High together, and then were part of the New Bedford Whalers' glory days of the late 1960s, including the undefeated 1968 season.

"I was a running back on offense and a defensive back on defense, and no matter which side I was on I just got behind Clarence," Gomes said with a laugh. "He made my job a lot easier, because he cleared out everything in front of me."

He said even then, he could tell Brooks had the makings of a great coach.

"He always had that extra drive," Gomes said. "He was a friendly, jovial guy all the time, until he put on that football helmet. Once the helmet was on, he became a dominant force and all business."

Len Sylvia, the GNB Voc-Tech athletic director, played with Brooks at New Bedford and later attended UMass Amherst with him. He said he never had a doubt that Brooks would turn football into his life's work.

"He loved the game, he lived for it," Sylvia said. "He was a real tough-nosed kid and was a student of the game even then."

Rochester's Mike Rounseville first met Clarence in 1968, when Brooks was a senior and Rounseville was a sophomore on the New Bedford High team. He said what impressed him most about Brooks was his work ethic and no-nonsense approach to practice.

"He gave 100 percent of him at all times and expected his teammates to do the same. If you didn't, you'd soon hear from him," Rounseville said. "He told me during preseason drills, 'You go 100 percent on this field at all times. You never walk on this field. You run everywhere.' We all looked up to him as a role model."

Brooks was born in New York City, and his family moved to New Bedford around 1960. His father Clarence Sr. was a merchant marine, and he and his wife Kathleen raised their four sons — Donald, Errol, Clarence and Kelvin — in the Whaling City (the eldest, daughter Antoinette, was already married and living out of the house). The Brooks boys grew up on Hillman Street and were always close.

"We always took an interest in whatever the other kids were doing," Kelvin said. "Even now, we're all over the country, but we're still close. We're separated by miles but we're always in touch."

Brooks married his high school sweetheart, Justa, and together they raised two children; daughter Adrienne is a lawyer, and son Justin joined the Ravens as an offensive assistant in 2009.

"They moved around a lot less than other coaches' families might, but it still takes a special kind of woman to endure that kind of life. And my sister-in-law is that kind of person," Kelvin said.

After graduating from New Bedford in 1969 with letters in football and track, Brooks went on to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. There, he played guard under head coach Dick MacPherson from 1970-72, including being named team captain his senior season. He earned All-Conference and All-East honors on the offensive line, while also earning his bachelor's degree in sociology.

He returned to New Bedford High following his college graduation, teaching and coaching the freshmen football team. One year later, the old New Bedford Voke was looking for a line coach, and head coach Jeff Riley asked Gomes if he knew of anyone; he immediately recommended his old friend "Brooksy," and Brooks was a big part of the school's turnaround. But it wasn't long before the college ranks became a possibility.

According to Rounseville, MacPherson announced his intentions to bring Brooks to the UMass coaching staff at the 1976 New Bedford High football banquet, when MacPherson was the guest speaker.

"Clarence came to see him and during Coach MacPherson's speech, he stated that UMass football had never been the same since Clarence graduated and it wouldn't be the same until Clarence returned," Rounseville said. "He was in fact offering Clarence a chance to coach with him back at his alma mater."

"It was tough to lose him, but you can't hold somebody back like that," Gomes said. "We knew he was going places."

Brooks worked with the defensive ends at UMass from 1976-80, with the Minutemen reaching the DI-AA championship game in 1978 and playing in the 1978 Pioneer Bowl. When MacPherson moved on to Syracuse, Brooks went with him, coaching from 1981-89. He worked with the outside linebackers for the first six years, before becoming defensive line coach the final three seasons there. After the Orangemen struggled for the first few years, they went 11-0 and tied Auburn in the Sugar Bowl in 1987. They were 10-2 in 1988 and 8-4 in 1989 with bowl game victories in each season.

Everywhere he's coached, Brooks has enjoyed success, but it wasn't until he was the defensive line coach at the University of Arizona from 1990-92 that he really got on the NFL radar. As an instrumental part in the Wildcats' "Desert Swarm" defense (featuring future Patriot Tedy Bruschi at defensive end), Brooks was part of a team that led the nation in scoring defense in 1992.

Just prior to joining Arizona, Brooks worked in the Dallas Cowboys' 1989 training camp as part of a minority fellowship program. It was there that he met incoming Cowboys defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt. When Wannstedt became the head coach of the Chicago Bears in 1993, he hired Brooks as his defensive line coach.

"He remembered the way Clarence coached from that camp and wanted to bring him on board," Oliveira said. "That's how he got his start in the NFL, and it's been 17 great years since then."

With Brooks on board, the Bears averaged 34.2 sacks per season from 1993-98 and he helped coach them to bring the pressure. In 1993, they were fourth in the NFL in total yards allowed and third in passing yards. In 1994, they were fifth in passing yards, and in 1995, they ranked fifth.

When Wannstedt was fired in 1998, Brooks went on to coach the defensive line of the Cleveland Browns for the 1999 season. Wannstedt, meanwhile, went on to become Jimmy Johnson's defensive coordinator and assistant head coach in Miami, and when Johnson retired the following year and Wannstedt took over, he brought Brooks back into the fold.

Brooks coached in Miami from 2000-04, with the Dolphin defense recording at least 44 sacks three times in his tenure, averaging nearly three sacks a game during that time. They were also in the top five in run defense for two years straight (2002-03). Coaching defensive ends like Trace Armstrong, Jason Taylor and Adewale Ogunleye, Brooks' guys led the NFL in sacks in 2000, 2002 and 2003.

"Clarence was quick, hard-hitting and extremely aggressive. Those were his trademarks," Rounseville said. "He has obviously instilled those qualities in the defensive players he coaches."

Once Wanndstedt resigned in 2004 to take the job at the University of Pittsburgh, Brooks was hired by Brian Billick to join the Baltimore Ravens to fill the defensive line coach position after Rex Ryan moved up to become defensive coordinator. In Brooks' seven seasons there, the Ravens have perennially been one of the NFL's stingiest defenses, especially against the run. Led by Pro Bowler Haloti Ngata, the defensive line was especially stout this season in getting the Ravens all the way to the AFC title game for the second time in Brooks' tenure in Baltimore.

"Even with all that success, he has no big ego," said New Bedford's Mike Oliveira. "Most coaches who have been in the NFL for 17 years might have an ego, but not Clarence. He's still the same guy he always was."

Oliveira knew Kelvin Brooks when he was growing up, but became friends with Clarence later in life. He just missed playing alongside him at New Bedford High, going to school the year after Brooks graduated, and he actually replaced Brooks on the New Bedford Voke coaching staff when he left to join the UMass program.

"We became close around that time. We always kept in touch, and I used to take trips down to Miami when he was a coach there," Oliveira said. "He always cares about New Bedford, no matter where he is."

Oliveira, who works with at-risk kids in the New Bedford school system, said he found out about a Keith Middle School class that watched the film "The Blind Side" about Ravens offensive lineman Michael Oher's journey to the NFL. Oliveira mentioned it to Brooks, and the coach mailed the class an autographed picture of Oher.

"It meant so much to them to find out someone from New Bedford was a coach in the NFL," Oliveira said. "All the kids wrote a letter to thank him, and they said they wanted to play for the Ravens someday."

"He's a great role model for kids from New Bedford. The whole family is just wonderful," Lakeville's Martha Worley said. "His mom used to be at every single football game, cheering him on. She would be so proud of him."

Worley grew up in Fairhaven and has been friends with Kelvin Brooks since high school. She first met Clarence about 10 years ago, and is now part of the tight-knit group that often travels to Baltimore to attend Ravens games. She said they stay at the team hotel, where Clarence will meet them for drinks when his schedule allows.

"His success has not affected him one iota," Worley said. "He's very grounded, and very kind-hearted."

She said her and her husband recently went to Baltimore for business, and met Clarence and Justa for dinner while they were down there. They were surprised at how much attention he received. Unless they're a former big-time player, most NFL assistant coaches enjoy a degree of anonymity; that's hardly the case with Brooks, who is recognized wherever he goes.

"He's like a rock star down there," Worley said. "People were coming up to the table to say hello, asking him for an autograph. And he spent a few minutes speaking with every one of them."

Brooks has a ritual before just about every game. Once he gets out of meetings — usually around 10 p.m. — he calls Oliveira and Gomes. While football comes up occasionally and conversationally, it's hardly ever the main topic.

"I think he calls us just to unwind," Oliveira said. "We talk about family and friends and what's going on back home in New Bedford."

Many of his old friends and teammates get together at Oliveira's house on Sundays to watch Ravens games, cheering for the Baltimore defensive line more than anything. It's going to make for an interesting dynamic this Sunday.

If the Ravens win, Brooks would become the second former New Bedford resident to coach in a Super Bowl; Nick Nicolau reached the big game in 1986 and 1987 as the running backs coach with the Denver Broncos. Wayne Fontes, the New Bedford native who went to high school in Ohio, coached the Detroit Lions in the 1992 NFC Championship, where they lost 41-10 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins (another New Bedford native, Glenn Pires, coached the Miami defense with Brooks and is now the linebackers coach for the Atlanta Falcons).

"I'm not rooting for the Ravens, I'm rooting for Clarence. Friends always come first for me," said Oliveira, who said he's a Patriots fan. "He did so much to help me in my life, and any time I can return the favor, that's what I try to do."

In fact, just about every one of his friends back here in New Bedford say that they want their Patriots to win, but it will be a nice consolation prize to see Clarence Brooks coaching in a Super Bowl. After all, good things should happen to good people.

"I don't know too many people I have such high esteem for as I do for Clarence," Sylvia said. "He's made it big, but he's never stopped being just one of the guys."